Police suspect 2 men in string of violent carjackings

ATLANTA - Police are investigating a string of carjackings that ended with a Walmart employee being shot.

Tiffany Way told Channel 2’s Amy Napier Viteri she was parked in a well-lit area on 11th Street, near Crescent in midtown, when she was carjacked by two armed men just after midnight on Saturday.

Way said she was right across from a security guard, but nobody noticed when one man with a gun quietly demanded her phone and car keys. Then, another gunman appeared and ordered her to walk away.

“I didn’t know if they were going to shoot me or not,” Way said.

According to a police report, shortly after stealing Way’s white Honda Accord, the men crashed in on the southbound connector, near Williams Street. When a couple pulled over to assist, the men stole their Suzuki, forcing the couple to walk to a nearby hotel for help, police said.

“That makes everybody think, ‘I’m not pulling over for anybody. You’re on your own dude, because I don’t know your motives,’” Way said.

Police said the crime spree continued early Saturday morning when the men took the Suzuki to a Gwinnett County Walmart on Rockbridge Road.

Gwinnett police showed Viteri surveillance video from the Walmart. Two men can be seen carjacking a customer in a blue Honda sedan while a Walmart worker unknowingly walks right past them. Police said the worker does not speak English, and did not understand the gunmen’s warnings.

“And the suspect points the gun at him and shoots him in the back of the leg,” Cpl. Jake Smith of the Gwinnett County Police Department said.

The worker hurried into the store after being shot.

Police later found the third stolen car in Atlanta on Joseph E. Boone Boulevard.

Gwinnett police said they found a gun believed to be connected with the carjackings inside the car.